FBI Announces Results of Nationwide Human Trafficking Operation

October 15, 2015

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Authorities including the FBI and law enforcement agencies nationwide announced the recovery of nearly 150 underage victims of human trafficking as the result of a nationwide operation Thursday.

In total, the FBI said, 149 victims, as young as 12 years old, were recovered and 153 pimps were arrested as a result of the initiative called “Operation Cross Country IX.” U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch called human trafficking “a monstrous and devastating crime that steals lives and degrades our nation.”

“More children will sleep safely tonight, and more wrongdoers will face the judgment of our criminal justice system,” Lynch added. “The Department of Justice will continue to aggressively and persistently fight this heinous crime, and to hold its perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”